Colin Wright, the third mate on the Alabama, has his own story to tell

Colin Wright claims the popular account of the happenings on the Maersk Alabama are not entirely factual.

Colin Wright claims the popular account of the happenings on the Maersk Alabama are not entirely factual.

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Staff

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Colin Wright was the third mate on the Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked by Somali pirates. The incident is depicted in the new film, "Captain Phillips."

Colin Wright was the third mate on the Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked by Somali pirates. The incident is depicted in the new film, "Captain Phillips."

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Staff

Image 3 of 3

Colin Wright was the third officer on the bridge of the Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked by Somali pirates and claims the popular account of the happenings on the ship are not entirely factual on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013, in Galveston. The Maersk Alabama was hijacked by Somali pirates, and the events that became the basis for the new film "Captain Phillips". ( Mayra Beltran / Houston Chronicle ) less

Colin Wright was the third officer on the bridge of the Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked by Somali pirates and claims the popular account of the happenings on the ship are not entirely factual on Tuesday, ... more

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Staff

Colin Wright, the third mate on the Alabama, has his own story to tell

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GALVESTON - Colin Wright had three opportunities to escape the bridge of the container ship Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked by four armed Somali pirates in 2009. The first time he decided to not abandon his captain. The second he was nearly shot. The third time, when he was certain he was going to be executed, Wright dived into the belly of the ship, where he waited in a safe room, separated from the rest of the crew.

Hours later, he was back on the bridge helping navigate the Alabama through the dark as it pursued a speck of light thousands of yards away. That light was a lifeboat carrying the pirates and Capt. Richard Phillips, a controversial and complicated figure who is the subject of the new movie "Captain Phillips," in which he is portrayed by Tom Hanks.

The U.S. Navy followed the lifeboat for five days before a SEAL team captured one of the pirates and shot and killed the others. Phillips, who was brutalized during his ordeal, was hailed by President Obama as a model of courage for his regard for his crew.

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Wright suggests a more complicated reality. He describes a crew that largely disagreed with Phillips, yet no one was prepared to leave a man behind.

Positive attitude

Wright, 46, speaks in a gentle voice, and he's quick to laugh. He says his experience on the Maersk Alabama hasn't changed his perspective on life.

"I've always been really positive about things," he says. "I'd rather say something's light than look for the dark."

He puts a premium on history and detail. Walking through the historical Rosenberg Library - he's lived in Galveston for the past 20 years - Wright marvels at the old building's design and its exhibits. He can't resist ringing the bell from the ship the Doctor Lykes.

Today, Wright is almost unrecognizable from the guy who appeared on news channels after the hijacking. Once close-cropped hair has been replaced by a frizzy sphere. He says he always looks professional when he's on a boat leaving shore, but since he's between trips, he's let it go.

The Beaumont native first came to Galveston to attend Texas A&M Maritime.

Wright ended up on the Maersk Alabama when he was an applicant for the Masters Mates & Pilots union. Because he wasn't yet a member, he had to take any job he could get, and the ship's position of third mate had been vacant for some time. "That's the thing when you're an applicant in the union: You have to take the jobs other people don't want," he says.

Wright had two four-hour watches on the bridge each day, and he also served as the fire and safety officer, which involved inspecting numerous fire extinguishers and making sure the lifeboats were fully stocked.

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He knew joining the Maersk Alabama might involve danger. Wright was told the ship's path would keep it more than 300 miles from the coast of Somalia. He'd been on the ship a month when the incident occurred.

He describes scenes in which trawlers would drop smaller boats into the water. Sometimes the boats were fisherman. Other times, they were pirates.

On April 7, 2009, second mate Ken Quinn alerted Phillips that two boats were chasing the Maersk Alabama. They came within a mile of the cargo ship but turned away because of choppy waters. The following morning the seas were calm. One boat with four pirates pursued them. A Navy ship was hundreds of miles away. The Alabama was an easy target.

Phillips and his crew tried to avoid capture, increasing speed and turning on the ship's exterior hoses to divert the smaller vessel. Wright says the film's portrayal of the captain launching flares at the boat was true.

"He was great, he'd shoot off a flare and then duck when they shot back at him," he says.

"He did some really great things."

Good and not so good

"He did some really great things" implies that Phillips made some mistakes as well. Wright certainly believes so. He commends his captain for dimming the radar during the hijacking so the pirates couldn't locate their mother ship. He praises Phillips' communication with the crew that was hunkered down in the engine control room.

But he also brings up the unheeded warnings, including emails from a private maritime security agency warning of pirate activity along the ship's route. The recommendation, he says, was to stay 600 miles from the coast.

Phillips has defended himself, saying he informed the crew that interaction with pirates was a matter of when, not if.

Wright paints the captain as a stubborn character.

"One of the things we talked about is how if something is not his idea, he's not going to do it," he says. "You can try to talk about it until he thinks it's his idea."

Wright wanted to contact the Navy about the boats he saw being dropped in the water. Phillips, he says, believed he'd be on the phone with the Navy all day considering the number of fishing boats in the area.

After the first two pirates boarded the ship, the crew shut the Alabama down completely.

Wright says he had a chance to flee the bridge but he didn't. Moments later Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the pirates' leader, ordered him and a shipmate to help the last two pirates climb on board. They were at gunpoint, but Wright thought he had a chance to overwhelm one of the pirates when the ladder came loose. He quickly ended up with the barrel of an AK-47 in his face.

With all four pirates on board, one demanded the crew reveal itself. Those on the bridge were given two minutes. The implication was Wright would be shot if the crew didn't surface. Muse intervened and allowed Wright to seek out the crew. Wright instead hid in a place he'd scouted before the ship left land.

When he didn't return, Muse went looking for the crew himself. Chief engineer Mike Perry, hiding in the pitch-black engine room, was able to incapacitate Muse with only a knife and his knowledge of the ship.

Wright kept hearing arguing and gunfire. "I (could) hear all of it from where I was," he says. "On a dead ship, you can hear everything, everywhere."

He stayed hidden, unaware that a deal was being made. In exchange for Muse, the hijackers were to take the $30,000 cash on the ship and leave on one of the Alabama's lifeboats.

In the film, Phillips was physically forced onto the boat. Wright says the captain went voluntarily to show the pirates how to operate it.

Regardless, the pirates headed toward Somalia with their hostage.

In pursuit of the captain

The Alabama was dead in the water. Wright emerged after he heard a crew member utter the safe word "suppertime/dinnertime."

The crew - which had spent hours in a sweltering non-ventilated room - got the ship operational in 15 minutes. The Maersk Alabama gave chase to its own lifeboat.

Wright shows several photographs from the bridge that night. They're black but for a tiny speck of light far in the distance that came from the lifeboat.

First mate Shane Murphy and Perry commanded the bridge. From dusk until past midnight the Alabama gave chase, cutting off the lifeboat and forcing it to turn away from Somalia. "They thought we were going to run them over," Wright says. "But the captain knew we wouldn't do that. We're seamen. We're not going to kill people."

The ship was in contact with the Navy and was being bombarded with calls from the media. The crew hoped the Navy arrived before a pirate mother ship. When a ship approached at 30 knots the crew knew they were safe. But Phillips wasn't.

"For six hours, we kept them within a few miles of where we started," Wright says. "Because we weren't going to let them get away with our captain."

Meanwhile, the situation on the lifeboat grew increasingly volatile. Muse was lured off under the guise of a negotiation. That left three targets to hit and one to miss. The three remaining pirates were killed.

Differences of opinion

We protect our heroes, possibly because they embody a sense of hope for us.

Tom Hanks said he sought "authenticity" in portraying Phillips. Still casting Hanks instantly infuses the character with a certain weight: Hanks doesn't play heroic action heroes, but he often plays heroic Everymen. Watching the film, Wright laughs during a scene when Phillips yells, "If you want to shoot someone, shoot me!"

"How (Hanks) thinks about Captain Phillips is different than how the entire maritime community that has sailed with him thinks about Captain Phillips," Wright says, suggesting his crewmates don't buy Phillips as a hero.

Additionally, the SEALs' actions were at first recounted incorrectly, making the story even more dramatic by saying the snipers took down three hijackers with three shots. Subsequent reports revealed the pirates sustained numerous gunshot wounds.

An Associated Press story last week brought up the $30,000 cash from the Alabama, which went missing - either thrown overboard by the pirates or snared by someone close to the scene.

Between the crew, the Navy and the surviving pirate, one cohesive narrative isn't likely to emerge. The film will likely be the most widely distributed account, even though its director, Paul Greengrass, has stated, "Movies are not journalism. Movies are not history."

Wright isn't portrayed in "Captain Phillips;" he was unable to reach a financial agreement with the researchers and screenwriters for the project.

He seems quietly hurt that the six hours the crew spent trying to keep their captain in sight is lost in the din of others' more lauded actions. Phillips publicly commended the crew for its loyalty. But heroism needs a face, and Phillips became it.

"Mike Perry did so many great things," Wright says. "But they don't make a Mike Perry movie."

Several crew members, excluding Wright, have filed a lawsuit that accuses Phillips of ignoring warnings about pirates on its route in order to save time. Phillips is not named in the lawsuit, which instead seeks millions from the company that owns the Alabama.

Wright wanted to be on land when the movie was released. Now, he'll likely look for his next job.

Wright says he's had enough adventure and will only board a ship with armed guards, which generally means government vessels. Since the incident he's been on ships that pass by Somalia through the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and heard distress calls from foreign ships.

"I'll say we have to turn around and help, but they say they can't do that," he says. "It's difficult because it's the same situation. I know that situation."